Christmas comes early this year. OK, no, that’s not true. Unless we’re speaking metaphorically, and strictly to an audience of college basketball fanatics, which would seem to be the case given the placement of this article on the college basketball page of a national sports website.

So, for you, Christmas not only comes early, it comes tomorrow.

Your shopping time is extremely limited.

It arrives on Friday because the NCAA enacted a rule change starting this year that allows programs to begin practice 40 days before their initial games, although each is limited to 30 practice days in that timeframe.

The change will allow coaches to teach their players in a less frenzied environment. In past years, with practices typically opening near mid-October, coaches could face exhibition games a little more than two weeks after their workouts began and competitive games in a little more than three weeks. With nearly a six-week head start and about two full days off per week during that timeframe, everyone involved might have the chance to relax a little.

If only it were that easy for the coaches. Every last one of them faces some significant degree of pressure, has something to prove during the 2013-14 season.

It could be said, though, that some have more than others.

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John Calipari, Kentucky

2012-13 finish: 21-12, lost first round of NIT

Calipari’s NCAA championship doesn’t even have two years’ worth of dust on it, so it would seem he still is in the stage where he can point to the trophy case and dare you to criticize him. But Calipari isn’t just any coach, Kentucky isn’t just any job and, perhaps most precisely, this isn’t just any team.

Calipari and his staff signed six of 247Sports.com’s top 14 prospects in the class of 2013, including Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 8 and 10. And No. 2, Julius Randle, would have been No. 1 in most years this century. And two key members of last year’s talented recruiting class—center Willie Cauley-Stein and forward Alex Poythress—stuck around for another season.

And, most important, last season didn’t go terribly well.

The Wildcats compiled a 12-6 record in the Southeastern Conference even with star center Nerlens Noel being injured with a month to go in the regular season, but their disastrous exits from the SEC Tournament and NIT obscured any minor successes that occurred. So much so that when UK became the No. 1 pick in the Sporting News College Basketball yearbook, there was a ton of backlash suggesting it was a ludicrous projection given the failure of last year’s highly regarded recruiting class to even make the tournament.

So yeah, that less-than-two-year-old NCAA title, achieved principally through the efforts of a highly-regarded recruiting class, already is forgotten by some. Calipari is going to want to change that.

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Steve Lavin, St. John’s

2012-13 finish: 17-16, lost in NIT second round

Lavin’s absence from the Red Storm bench in 2011-12 because of his prostate cancer undoubtedly impacted the momentum he has been trying to build since returning to coaching following nearly a decade in the broadcasting business.

His first SJU team was a smashing success, as was the recruiting class gathered while that 2011 team was earning the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in nearly a decade. He left the team in capable hands the following season, with Mike Dunlap calling the plays, but it couldn’t be entirely Lavin’s program during that period. And the most talented player from that squad, freshman Mo Harkless, cut out for the NBA before anybody expected that would be possible.

So now Lavin gets to coach the Red Storm in consecutive seasons for the first time. He gets to do that with six players in the seven-man rotation from the team’s NIT loss in place. The Red Storm will not be dependent on freshmen to enliven the roster, as was the case each of the past two seasons. There is a five-star point guard recruit, Philadelphian Rysheed Jordan; his contributions will be welcome but not essential.

St. John’s also enters a reimagined Big East Conference in which football’s attention, influence and (relative) financial benefits no longer tilt the balance of power toward others.

For all of this to matter, however, somebody is going to have to make some shots, or Lavin and his assistants will need to X-and-O the players into more dunks and layups. The Red Storm hit 41.5 percent from the field and 27 percent from 3-point range. It’s going to be a challenge.

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Steve Alford, UCLA

First season with team

It’s not as though Alford has to dash through the doors of Pauley Pavilion and reach the Final Four in his initial campaign. He doesn’t even have to improve on the work done last season by his predecessor, Ben Howland, who won the Pac-12 regular season title and reached the finals of the conference tournament.

A few of Howland’s friends might grumble if Alford falls short of those standards, but the roster he inherits is not quite as talented as last year’s, if only because star wing Shabazz Muhammad moved along to the NBA draft.

And besides: Alford wasn’t hired because he’s a better coach than Howland. He was hired because he is a different coach. Seeking an upgrade was somewhat of a fool’s errand; Howland is among the best of his era. But that’s not to insist the program hadn’t reached a point where a fresh perspective would be useful.

So what must Alford accomplish this season? Well, it’s essential the Bruins be good: finish well in the league, make the tournament, win a few signature games. Although his teams were not typically dynamic at New Mexico—last year’s Lobos scored only 67 points per game—it wouldn’t hurt to play an entertaining style.

Those who criticize UCLA basketball, which happens a lot from without and within, will look for whatever weaknesses they can find. Perhaps most important of all, Alford cannot afford to be visibly impacted by any poor reviews he encounters.

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Roy Williams, North Carolina

2012-13 finish: 25-11, lost in NCAA round of 32

Not many coaches had more to worry about in the offseason than Williams, who had to hold his breath every time P.J. Hairston pressed on a gas pedal. Hairston’s multiple motorized escapades pushed Williams to the point where there was no other solution but to suspend his best player indefinitely.

It’s still not at all clear what the punishment will be for Hairston’s brushes with authorities, and it’s also not clear whether there will be any NCAA repercussions relative to the potential extra-benefits issues raised by USA Today’s reporting on the rented vehicles Hairston was driving when stopped by police.

Williams might have had at least another Final Four in 2012, and possibly a national championship, had not point guard Kendall Marshall broken his wrist when fouled hard by Creighton’s Ethan Wragge. Even without Marshall, the Tar Heels got to the Elite Eight before running out of offense in the last five minutes against Roy’s old pals from Kansas.

Then came the 2012-13 season, when the Heels were swept by rival Duke, lost seven times by double digits and pretty much scraped the bottom in a visit to Miami, when they fell by 26. That Carolina won 25 games and reached the final of the ACC Tournament seems almost an afterthought.

Is it even worth mentioning that an ESPN survey of Division I head coaches did not include Williams among the 25 best X-and-O coaches in the college game? Perhaps not, given that fellow Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim also was excluded, but definitely given that we’re writing here about Williams having something to prove.

Don’t think he’s much of a coach? Really? After 700 wins and a near-.800 winning percentage and two NCAA titles in the past decade? OK, then here’s another chance for ol’ Roy to remind you what he can do.

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Josh Pastner, Memphis

2012-13 finish: 31-5, lost in NCAA round of 32

His first game as a head coach came at age 32. He already has 106 victories to his credit. That’s more than Mike Krzyzewski had at the same age.

Indeed, but Coach K never got to coach in Conference USA.
Isn’t that what you’re thinking? If not saying it out loud? Pastner’s achievements have been stuffed into a little box with a “C-USA” label attached, just so everyone understands the contents. Although he has won three conference tournament titles and 81 percent of his league games, the case against Pastner principally involves his absence of victories over “AP ranked” teams. He’s never had one. What no one tells you is the Tigers rarely get the chance to play ranked opponents—there were only two all of last season—almost none of them came at home and nearly every one have come near the start of the season.

So that’s likely to change now that the Tigers are in the American Conference. Connecticut will visit FedEx Forum. Louisville will be in town late in the season. On the non-league side, Gonzaga will come to town and Memphis will play Florida on a neutral court in New York. So there’ll be more of these opportunities, and most will come after the team has had some time to develop.
The Tigers lost almost no one of note from the team that, as it says above, topped the 30-win mark. And they added two freshmen who’ll deepen the frontcourt and a star-level talent in guard Mike Dixon, who transferred from Missouri.

With all these big games and all this material, there is the chance to erase those four letters—if not from his resume, then from his reputation.

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Rick Barnes, Texas

2012-13 finish: 16-18

How long ago does 2011 seem to you? For most of us, it seems like two years ago. Not Rick Barnes. That luxury is not permitted to him by those who follow college basketball. In 2010-11, Barnes’ Texas squad finished 28-8 overall and posted a 13-3 record in the Big 12 Conference, missing a share of the regular-season title by a game.

Not much has gone right since, nearly all of the calamity connected to the Longhorns’ decision to build their next iteration with players from Canada. Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph went pro after a year, entering the 2011 draft. Myck Kabongo struggled to adapt to college basketball the following season, then got himself suspended and left the Horns without a point guard most of the year.

Since the close of that disastrous season, Kabongo left to search for someone who’d pay him to play. Julien Lewis, Sheldon McClelland and Jaylen Bond transferred. The player who looked like he’d be next season’s star, Ioannis Papapetrou, enjoyed a great summer in European youth competition and drew a pro offer he couldn’t refuse.

Wow, it can turn so fast—from reaching 14 consecutive NCAA Tournaments (17 counting his Clemson days), including a Final Four and two Elite Eights—to being mentioned in articles that list coaches on the “hot seat.”

Is there any hope? There are some promising young bigs, Cameron Ridley and Prince Ibeh. But according to Scout.com, no one entering is more than a 3-star prospect, and recruiting isn’t on fire for 2014, either.

If the Longhorns were to overachieve this season, and the expectations are so low that it certainly is attainable, perhaps they could reignite the passion that seems to have gone missing.

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Everyone in Conference USA

It wasn’t so terribly long ago that Charlotte, Tulsa and UAB were serious players in basketball.

It was only in the past few years that Southern Miss and UTEP were forcing their way into national relevance.

With Memphis gone, though, joining past defectors Louisville, Cincinnati and Marquette, there is no one left to provide the league with some definition, with a target. If a team could beat the Tigers—and it’s only happened a dozen times over the past four years—they could claim a “quality” win.

That’s going to be more difficult now, because none of the 16 remaining teams is an established power and few will have the opportunity to build a schedule that facilitates the collection of tournament-quality victims.

Every coach in the league has both an opportunity and an obligation to secure as many of those kinds of victories as possible. Otherwise, you’ll be looking at a league stuffed with 16 teams, many of which used to make regular NCAA trips, all scrambling for one measly bid like the Southland does each year.